Now You See Me: Now You Don't brings the fan-favorite magician heist movie franchise back after nine years, a magic trick in and of itself. This new adventure sees the return of Jesse Eisenberg (J. Daniel Atlas), Woody Harrelson (Merritt McKinney), Dave Franco (Jack Wilder), and Isla Fisher (Henley Reeves) as they take on Rosamund Pike's dirty diamond dealer Veronika Vanderberg.
But the OG group of magicians isn't alone this time, as a new generation joins them to spice everything up. This includes Justice Smith (Charlie), Dominic Sessa (Bosco), and Ariana Greenblatt (June).The Direct sat down with Now You See Me: Now You Don't director Ruben Fleischer and producer Bobby Cohen, where they discussed the merging of generations in this third entry.
Cohen expressed how exciting it was to see Greenblatt, Sessa, and Smith, "who saw the movies as kids," now "starring in the third movie with these people that they grew up with."
Cohen compared the two groups of magicians in the movie to two different rock bands and how different generations of musicians tend to butt heads. The producer explained that "part of the clash is seeing that the old band and the new bands have to realize that they both love music and learn how to make music together."
Ruben added that it "was fun to watch our young actors act opposite Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, and feel that same sort of legacy of generations."
When asked how he wanted to up the ante for this third film, the director noted he had "the privilege of approaching the movies as a fan," while asking himself: "What would I want to see as a fan of the franchise in this next installment?" He wanted to provide "even greater spectacle, bigger tricks and illusions" and "more fun action than before."
For more from the interview, be sure to check out the entire conversation below. Now You See Me: Now You Don't lands in theaters on November 14, 2025. For those wondering how this franchise might translate to television, a spin-off series was almost developed.
Combining Generations of Magicians for One Big Adventure
The Old & the New Come Together In Exciting Ways.
- The Direct: "One of the key recurring themes in this film is the topic of generation, most notably, the differences between generations. Can you both talk about how you wanted this movie to address kind of those generational rifts and what you wanted the story to say about it?"
Bobby Cohen: When we were putting the first movie together, one of the big conceptual ideas was to think of this group of magicians as a rock band, and to move away from people's earlier perceptions of magicians, which is this sort of, this kind of thing, and old-fashioned. And so the first thing we said is they are the coolest rock band in the world. And I think in movie one, that's who they are.
So, if you extend that metaphor, after a band is cool and breaks, and they've got a bunch of records, then for a while, they start coasting, and people start saying, you know, they're just kind of doing what they used to do, and it's a little cynical, and they don't care about it as much.
So, if you think about what we did in the third movie, it's a new rock band, right? And these guys are up and coming, and they've got an attitude, and they don't listen to mom and dad's music, and they've got their own music. And part of the clash is seeing that the old band and the new bands have to realize that they both love music and learn how to make music together. So, I think that was part of it for us.
Ruben Fleischer: I think that there was a funny parallel between life and art in that we had these three young actors coming to join a pre-existing crew, and that exists, you know, with the horsemen, these three young magicians have always kind of idolized, and actually were inspired to perform magic in the first place by the older generation. So, it was fun to watch our young actors act opposite Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, and feel that same sort of legacy of generations.
Cohen: And actually, we've talked about this before, but it was really interesting is that when we were doing the the sort of in the casting process, and all these actors came in, you know, they're all in their 20s now, and they all saw the first movie when they were 10, before they even necessarily knew they wanted to be actors. So their relationship with the movie isn't it's more like, that's the movie I watched at a birthday party before I even knew I wanted to be an actor, and now all of a sudden you're telling me, I can be in that movie...
This is like, you know, if someone had said to me, do you want to be in the sequel to Goonies? Right? And I can't even believe it. What do you mean? That's the movie that my mom dropped me off at the theater and paid for the popcorn, and now I'm in the movie with those people. So that was part of it, and as Ruben said, the dynamic of these kids, of Ariana [Greenblatt] and Dominic Sessa and Justice Smith, who saw the movies as kids, and now we're starring in the third movie with these people that they grew up with. That was pretty cool to watch that kind of play out in real time.
How Now You See Me 3 Ups the Ante
"You Never Want to Feel Like You're Just Re-Skinning the Movie."
- The Direct: "What were some of the key ways in which you really wanted this third one to up the ante and evolve the franchise, just across the board?"
Ruben Fleischer: I approached this movie as an outsider. Bobby is the person who birthed these, as these were actually his idea. But I got the privilege of approaching the movies as a fan, so I thought to myself, what would I want to see as a fan of the franchise in this next installment? And how can we provide even greater spectacle, bigger tricks and illusions, you know, more fun action than before. So it was an exciting challenge to just think about how I might be able to raise the bar.
Bobby Cohen: The trick, as you know, on sequels, is you never want to feel like you're just re-skinning the movie. And that's a trap that sequels fall into. And as much as we, all of us that do this for a living, try really hard, you fall into it. And I think that when we did this movie, it was partially a getting back to the core idea, which is, they are magicians, and they are doing these tricks for real. And so, that was a big thing of Ruben's when we first started talking, which is like, what can we do and what can we capture in camera?
So, when people see this movie, and they see this particularly in the second act of the movie, when we're at this incredible chateau in France, and this, it's one incredible magic room after another, all that is real. We built that for real. There's no CG there. And really putting together the best team of real magicians and illusions that we could ever put together, who really put the actors through boot camp. And you know, not going to say this isn't Tom Cruise jumping off a cliff on a motorcycle, but it's the magic equivalent of that.
The entire interview can be seen below:
LATEST NEWS
